


(Not So) Public Displays of Affection

by Airlinefood



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: 5+1 Things, Attempt at Humor, Banter, Established Relationship, First Meetings, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:21:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27463357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airlinefood/pseuds/Airlinefood
Summary: Five times Raihan and Leon held hands and one time it meant more.
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Kibana | Raihan, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 7
Kudos: 111





	(Not So) Public Displays of Affection

\---  
1

The silence is almost deafening. They always feel the loss before the crowd even sees one of their Pokemon fall.

Two pairs of eyes watch, wildly, as Duraludon shrinks back down to his normal size before fainting. The sandstorm winds down, giving the audience a clear view of what had just happened. He can register that the crowd is cheering, loud as ever, but it's a distant buzzing with all the adrenaline running through his veins.

Leon claims yet another win. 

He starts his walk towards the middle of the field, watching as Raihan does the same. 

"Ten to nothing, ay Leon?" Raihan leans forward into his personal space. Leon makes no move to lean away. 

"I'm looking forward to eleven to nothing." Leon says. He relishes the pout Raihan gives him in return. The champion smiles and raises his hand up for the gym leader to shake. Raihan takes it, and for a moment they're still. 

Leon tightens his hand, and Raihan smiles, small. Just for him to see, as if the thousands of fans in the crowd weren't there.

Then, he bites his lip, blinking as remembers where he is. He shakes Raihan's hand and says, "You fought well. Who knows, maybe the eleventh time’s the charm." He feels the grin form on his face as he says it. 

Instead of a reply, Raihan tugs his hand, bringing him in close.

"Wh-"

"Smile." Raihan says, low. Leon sees his Rotom flying around the two of them before Raihan throws his arm around Leon's shoulder and smiles. Leon puts up a peace sign, ignoring how warm his face felt. 

After that's all said and done, Leon walks off the pitch with plans to meet his boyfriend for dinner and the feeling of a hand intertwined with his own that he knows left his grip moments ago. 

He could get used to that.  
\---  
2

It stung. 

More than anything. A pressure on his chest that he couldn't shake. He can't breathe.

The Champion has fallen. 

He's alone in his locker room. What's his locker room for now, until he exits. The whole match was a blur. He hoped they thought he handled it well. Like a champion would. He can still hear the faint roar of the crowd, no doubt accepting their new champion. For once, the cheering only brought dread.

He knows he should get up and move, get out of here before reporters start gathering at the entrance of the locker room, but he can't. Every part of him feels heavy. 

He hears the door open, but can't bring himself to look at whoever has entered.

"Hey." 

He feels himself choke on a sob once he hears his voice. "Raihan."

Raihan takes a seat next to Leon. "How're you feeling?" 

Leon wanted to laugh. "It feels like I just lost my title."

The Gym Leader puts an arm around Leon, rubbing his shoulder. "Figured." 

The Ex-Champion leans into his boyfriend, trembling. Raihan sighs, "It gets easier." Leon hums in confusion. "To lose, I mean. It won't always feel like this."

He breaks. 

He feels Raihan flinch at the loud sob that leaves him. Leon wants to stop, save himself the embarrassment but he can't. He grips tightly at the bench while tears stream down his face. 

Raihan rubs circles on Leon's back. It's a small comfort."Lee, it's alright lets j-"

"I thought it'd be you." 

Raihan freezes. "Huh?" 

Leon laughs. Or sobs. He can't tell the difference at this point, and he doubts Raihan can either. "I always thought It'd be you on the other side of that pitch when I lost. I thought-" He’s gasping for air. "I thought when I lost, it'd be you. And that you'd be there and it would hurt less." 

It's childish, he thinks. No grown man should be this upset over losing. Or losing to the wrong person.

"I thought so too." Raihan leaves it at that. He continues to hold Leon until he's finally calm. His breathing is still hitched, but it's progress. 

Raihan moves his arm from around the ex-champion, and softly takes hold of one of his hands. 

Leon relaxes and leans in closer to Raihan. The Gym Leader squeezes his hand, running his thumb over Leon's knuckles. And for the first time in what seems like hours, Leon feels like his head is clear. 

Leon brings his boyfriend’s hand up and kisses the back of it shakily. 

The former champion thinks that he'll be alright.   
\---  
3

Leon watches from the kitchen as, 

Well, as a fight breaks out at the dining table. 

“What do you mean ‘Ridiculous’?! It’s scientific!”

“Yeah? If it’s so scientific then why is he a fire and flying type?”

“I already said it’s because the scientists who discovered the dragon typing only had so many traits to work f-”

“And?! Other types have been changed. What about the fairy typing?”

“Exactly! We changed other Pokemon’s type to fairy, so why shouldn’t that apply here?!” 

“Because i-”

Leon’s mum watches on in horror. 

He hums, pulling the food out of the oven. “Are you sure you guys don’t wanna ask my thoughts on this? I am the one with a Charizard here.” 

Hop crosses his arms, glaring at Raihan. “And I’m the one who’s studying under the professor.”

“Hey, I’m The Dragon Tamer. So my opinions outweigh yours.” Raihan finishes with a sharp smirk, leaning back in his chair. 

Leon smiles, taking out plates for the cupboard. “What if my opinion is that Charizard isn’t a dragon type?” 

“I mean, sure, Champ. We’d love your input.” Raihan smiles, sweet, a stark difference to the smirk he was wearing earlier. Leon flushes under the Gym Leader's gaze.

Hop whines, slouching down in his chair. “What?! That’s not fair. C’mon, Lee, you of all people should think he’s a dragon.”

“There’s really no evidence that Charizard is a dragon type. He learns dragon moves, sure. However, that would mean that any Pokemon who learns a move of a type that’s not theirs would make them a different type.” 

Hop looks dangerously close to flipping the table. “Sure! But you can’t look at that thing and tell me it doesn’t scream dragon type!”

“That’s like saying Bonsly and Sudowoodo should be grass type.” 

“It absolutely is NOT the same thing!” 

Raihan’s howling with laughter, while Hop looks like he’s close to committing a crime. 

“You bunch are as lively as ever.” Their mum smiles warmly as Leon approaches the table. 

The gym leader smiles, leaning on his hand. “And you are looking as lovely as ever, Ma’am.” 

Their mum laughs, charmed. “You’re more of a flirt with my mum than you are with me.” Leon huffs as he hands out the plates. 

Raihan smiles before saying, “I flirted with you an unhealthy amount. Not my fault you were too daft to notice.” 

“...Why...Why would Raihan be flirting with you, Lee?” 

The two freeze, making panicked eye contact with one another. 

“That’s because we’re just...really...good friends?” Raihan snorts and the former champion glares at him. He never was a good liar. 

“Why’re you more concerned with that than me flirting with your mum.”

That leaves the two to start arguing again, while Leon looks at his mum, concerned. She quirks her brow, looking between Leon and Raihan pointedly. Leon mouths ‘Later’ and hopes that’ll do for now. 

She shakes her head, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “The food looks lovely, Lee.” 

“The food isn’t the only thing that looks l-”

“Raihan!” Hop all but wails. 

Raihan pouts for a moment. “Would you rather me say somethin’ else? The food isn’t the only thing of Lee’s that look-” 

“Rai!” This time it’s Leon who interrupts him, face burning. The Dragon Tamer smiles sharply as Leon takes his seat next to him. Leon clears his throat, picking at his food. “Anyway, I wanted to run a few plans by you guys while I had you in one spot. Since the championship battle I’ve been a little,” He looks down at his plate. “Lost. I had an idea, regarding Rose tower, though.” He continues on like that, telling them about his plans for the battle tower. It’s mostly him and Raihan bouncing ideas off one another, with Hop and his Mum occasionally adding in. 

At some point through the dinner, Leon’s hand finds its way over Raihan’s, holding tight. When his family stares at the hands that are intertwined, all Leon offers is a sheepish smile. He’ll tell them details later. 

But for now, with his family and boyfriend so near, he’s content to let this moment play out before he’ll tell them anything. 

Raihan turns his hand over and intertwines their fingers. 

Leon’s never felt so at home.   
\---  
4

Raihan was never a fan of huge parties. 

Well, that was a lie. He hated these parties though. 

“Sorry, mate, I’m all set for now. I’ll let you know if we get an opening anytime soon, though.” Raihan watched as the man put on a too polite smile and walked off. 

Sponsorship parties were the worst. 

Most people are crowded up around the Gym Leaders, hoping to talk one of them into a deal. None of them compared to the crowd around Leon, though. The Battle Tower had far more offers than Raihan could even begin to comprehend. 

He starts his walk over there when, 

“Ah, Mr. Raihan? A moment of your time please.” 

This time Raihan feels himself put the too polite smile on his face. “Of course.” 

The woman tries her best to sell whatever the hell her product is to Raihan. 

From the corner of his eye, he sees Leon leave from the crowd, a man following close by him. Raihan smiles from across the room, which only brightened when he saw the Tower Leader return it. He turns back to the woman, remembering what he’s supposed to be doing. 

“Hammerlocke is actually all set for now. I promise you’ll be the first to hear if anything changes, yeah?” He gives his bright smile, and almost turns around but, 

“Wait, please let me finish!” 

He brings the glass in his hand up, wanting to take a drink, but it’s empty. Fucking hell. 

He sits for a few more moments, listening to the pitch that this woman is trying to give him. He clenches his jaw, feeling dangerously close to just walking off and leaving the whole party behind. 

Just as he’s about to do so, he feels a hand grasp his own, only for a moment, before moving away. He whips his head to the side only to see the former champion, walking away with his companion at his side. 

Leon turns around and smiles softly at Raihan once more. The Gym Leader flexes the hand that Leon took hold of. 

He feels any anger or thoughts of leaving the party fade away. 

“I’m really sorry to shoot you down like this. But, it’s gonna be a hard no from me. Enjoy the rest of the party, though.” This time he offers only a curt nod before turning around and walking off, not hearing her ask him to stay once more. 

He ends up running into Nessa on his way to go get another drink. 

She whistles low, as he approaches her. “Wow, that was…”

Raihan smiles sharply. “Rather aggressive, innit?” 

The Water Gym Leader shakes her head, some hairs fall out of place. “I was talking about you and Leon.” Raihan’s eyebrows shoot up, as he flexes the said hand again.

“Ah, well. Y-Yeah that was...really...Y’know.” Raihan’s face is heating up impossibly fast. He’s fumbling his words. He never fumbles words. 

Nessa snorts, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m really happy for you two, y’know. You guys got something good going on. But I think the pining is worse now than it was before you two were dating.”

Raihan smiles, “Oh, shove it.” 

Sponsorship parties might not be all that bad.   
\---  
5

Leon huffs as he stares at the map. 

“Why did you give me the map then?” 

Sonia’s sitting on the ground, head in her hands. She’s been like that for the last ten minutes. They’ve been lost in the wild area for only Arceus knows how long. “I thought that maybe even you could handle following a map!” She mumbles. 

The young boy whines, this close to just throwing the map on the ground. “You know I’m hopeless with this kind of rubbish, Sonia.”

His Charmander is over by Sonia’s side, making it clear whose side he’s on. “Traitor.”

The orange-haired girl stands up, grabbing the map from the boy. “We should be fine as long as we can identify any landmarks. Were you holding it upside down?!” 

“What? I could’ve sw-” 

He has the air knocked out of him before he can finish his sentence. 

“Sorry! Sorry!” 

Leon’s knocked over on the ground, eyes stinging as pain fires up in his hands. He blinks a few times before turning around. “What’s the big idea?!” His voice is shaking as he tries to dust the dirt off his hands, stinging his hands more in the process. 

“Aye, I said sorry! I couldn’t slow down in time. Had to catch up to this guy.” The boy gestures to a Trapinch that’s at his side. He’s about to say something else but Leon sniffles, which slowly turns into him crying. 

“Wh-”

Sonia groans, looking up towards the sky. “I’m gonna try to figure out this map, and you’re gonna fix,” She gestures towards Leon. “This.” She stomps a few feet away, before sitting down on a rock to look at the map. 

The boy looks panicked, crouching down to where Leon was. “Hey, I‘m really sorry. I didn’t see you. Ah- here!” The boy pulls the bag from off his back, shoveling through it. 

Leon finally looks up to get a good look at the boy. He can’t be any older than Leon himself, and judging by him being in the Wild Area, he’s probably a gym challenger. His hair is done up in dreads, held back by a black headband. 

Leon has to look away before he gets caught staring into the boy’s electric blue eyes, suddenly his hands hurt a lot less. 

The boy shouts out, holding a small first-aid kit above his head victoriously. “Here! This oughta help.” The boy pulls Leon’s hand close to him, before swabbing some disinfectant on his hand. Leon can’t tell if he flinches from the contact or from the sting of the disinfectant. 

Leon feels blood rushing to his face, he has to do something to distract himself. “I’m Leon!” That works, he guesses. 

The boy smiles, and Leon doesn’t know why he feels like this. “Name’s Raihan! I’m actually a gym challenger.” 

“Ah. Yeah I figured! Me and- Oh that’s Sonia- Me and Sonia were on our way to Motostoke.” 

The boy- Raihan suddenly laughs loudly. “You two got lost on the way to Motostoke.” They can hear Sonia grumble angrily at that, causing the two boys to snicker. 

“Yeah I’m pants with directions.” He laughs nervously. “We’ve been here for about two hours.”

Raihan pulls out a band-aid, and puts it delicately on one of the cuts on his hand, “If you two are really that lost, you can come with me. I’m pretty good at reading maps. And I promise I know where I’m going.” 

“Really? You’d do that?” 

Sonia jumps up this. “Arceus, Please. Anything to get us out of here.”

Raihan smiles as he puts the last band-aid on Leon’s other hand before standing up. “Great. We’d better get goin’ if you guys wanna make it by today.” He offers his hand to Leon, who takes it and stands up. 

Even after they part ways in Motostoke, Leon can’t shake the phantom sensation of that boy’s hand on his own. He even finds his fingers running along the bandages a worrying amount. 

He hopes he’ll get to see him again.   
\---  
+1

“Are you sure this is okay?”

“What’re they gonna do? Ban me from my own gym?” Leon snorts as he looks around the empty stadium. 

“It’s strange seeing it empty like this…”

Raihan shrugs, putting his hands in his hoodie pocket. “I guess you’ve never seen it empty before, yeah?” 

The former champion shakes his head, before turning to Raihan. “ So, are we gonna battle here or…” He watches as Raihan shifts on his feet. Weird. 

“Nah, As much as I’m looking forward to twelve to nothing, we should save that for another time.” 

Leon hums as he glances around the stadium one last time. “So what’s all this, then?” 

Raihan is chewing on his bottom lip and Leon’s getting real concerned that something is wrong. 

“Are...Are you breaking up with me?” 

Raihan’s eyes go comically large as he puts his hands up. “What? No, no, no ,no. No. I- Absolutely not.” 

Leon lets out a sigh of relief, “Sorry. You’re Just making me nervous over here, Rai.”

Raihan sighs, looking up at the sky, before turning back to Leon. “We had our first kiss here, yeah? Well, not here here. But, in the gym.”

Leon smiles at the memory. “We did. You didn’t talk to me for a week afterward.” He was laughing as if that week wasn’t the most terrifying week of his life, 

“Hey, in my defense you didn’t say anything! I thought I’d ruined everything.” 

“You could never ruin anything, Raihan.” 

For some reason that makes the Gym Leader freeze. Leon knows him well enough by now to tell when he’s flustered. “Raihan, what’s going on, Love? You’re acting strange, mate.” 

Raihan puts his hand on Leon’s shoulder, sliding it all the way down his arm to take hold of Leon’s hand. “...Raihan?” 

Raihan inhales, shakily, before sinking down to one knee. Leon watches with wide eyes as he pulls out a small box from inside his hoodie, and suddenly, he feels like he can’t breathe. He hears a buzzing in his ears. This can’t be real. 

“Leon, from the moment we first met I knew you’d be playing a major role in my life. You’ve en -”

“Yes.” The former champion knew if he let Raihan continue he’d sob.

“-tra- Huh?”

Leon can feel the tears streaming down his face. Blinking quickly, he nods, gripping Raihan’s hand tightly. “Yes. Yeah.” He can’t tell whose shaking more, and he doesn’t care. He can see Raihan tearing up as well, as he opens the box and shakily slides the ring onto Leon’s finger. He’d look at the ring but the only thing he can focus on is Raihan. 

Raihan stands up, pulling Leon in for a kiss, long and sweet. 

“I love you, so, so much.” 

Leon’s laughing, feeling a bit ridiculous crying in the middle of an empty stadium. 

“I love you too.” Leon only smiles harder as Raihan takes his hand, kissing the back of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. This isn't my first fic but its my first time posting one. (Also my phone was having major issues while uploading this so like. It might have uploaded twice? Sorry if that was the case NDMDMDM)


End file.
